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Some history
The Youth Sourcebook on Sustainable Development came about as a result of the experiences of the young people who organized and worked together during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992. Perhaps one of the major legacies of UNCED is the opportunity it provided for people to come together, and to work towards a common goal: the survival of the planet and its present and future inhabitants.
For youth -- the common goal was to ensure that UNCED addressed issues that affected them as young people, such as poverty and over consumption, but overall, youth wanted to have a voice as decisions were being made about their future. Coming together as the youth sector was not easy. One of the most rewarding yet difficult lessons from this experience was learning how to work together. The youth who participated at UNCED came from all kinds of organizations, large and small, from all regions of the world and diverse social, economic and political backgrounds.
Published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)and written, compiled and edited by young people, the Youth Sourcebook on Sustainable Development was developed to reach out to youth globally in order to continue the process of involving youth in sustainable development issues.
The Youth Sourcebook is an experiment in partnership. The basis of this partnership is to answer to a need: the need for resource material, developed by young people for young people on sustainable development issues. Youths from the North and the South have contributed to the process of creating a sourcebook that will be sensitive to the needs of youth from different regions and backgrounds. The Sourcebook is based on this collective effort.